


Music Soothes the Soul

by NothingImportant



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-21 10:30:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6048208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NothingImportant/pseuds/NothingImportant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tobin arrives at college and meets some interesting people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys this is something that I have been thinking about for awhile. It will probably be decently long. Any input would be much appreciated.

Tobin looked out the window as her parents drove away. They had just dropped her off at the University of Oregon. She didn’t envy them the long drive back to New Jersey. The three and a half day journey here nearly killed her. Primarily from boredom, but also the awkward silences that seemed to permeate the car during the last day of the journey. She sighed and turned away from the window and looked at all of her stuff that was strewn across the room. She had been lucky enough to get into one of the two person suites. 

They had a small living area in the center of the dorm, with the bathroom directly behind it and the bedroom off to either side. Her stuff was currently covering the couch and the chair in the living area. She grabbed a suitcase and moved it into the bedroom that had her name on it. She unpacked her clothes and went into the living area and grabbed the rest of her stuff. She put everything in its place. She plugged her computer in to let it charge and grabbed her guitar. She tuned it and ran through some scales. Playing soothed her nerves and just put her in a good mood. 

She changed from running scales to doing some basic chord changes. She wasn’t trying to do anything intricate she was just doing things that were mindless and had become second nature. After fifteen minutes of playing she heard the dorm room open. She could hear voices in the living area.

“Sounds like your roommate is already here.” a male voice said.

“Yep, and she plays guitar. That’s pretty neat.”

Tobin put her guitar down on her stand and opened her door. “Hey I’m Tobin. You must be Kelley.”

A girl with a ton of freckles turned to face her. “Yep that’s me! Nice to meet ya.”

Tobin smiled and shook her hand. “ Do you guys need any help getting your stuff up the stairs?”

“If you don’t mind that would be awesome.” Kelley responded, “We only have a few things left.”

Tobin went with them and helped Kelley carry the last of her things up the stairs and into their suite. She noticed that Kelley also had a guitar case with her. After they had gotten everything in the suite, Tobin gave Kelley and her parents a moment to say goodbye. After Kelley’s parents had left Kelley quickly gathered everything and put it in her room. Tobin went back to her room and opened her computer and started Netflix. She started to watch House of Cards for like the third time. She was halfway through the episode when she heard a knock on her door.

She opened it to see Kelley standing there guitar in hand.

“So I heard you playing when he got here. Wanna jam for a bit?”

Tobin smiled and grabbed her guitar. They sat in the living area and just messed around in a bunch of different keys. They took turns playing rhythm and lead parts. Tobin marveled at how easy it seemed to play along with Kelley. After an hour or so she noticed that they had good chemistry together musically. When it was nearing three o’clock Tobin stood up.

“So orientation starts in like fifteen minutes. I don’t really want to go, but we have to.”

Kelley put her guitar away. “We should probably go and get good seats,” she laughed.

They walked down to the auditorium where freshman orientation was being held. They found seats near the middle of the room and sat down near one of the aisles. They talked to each other about where they were from. Tobin found out that Kelley was from Georgia which was a longer drive than Tobin had. They found out that they both had siblings. And they had both been playing guitar since they were nine years old. 

“Dude I feel like your my long lost sister or something,” Tobin laughed after they found out they both loved The Rolling Stones.

“I know right. This is insane!”

Suddenly Tobin felt a tap on her shoulder. She whipped her head around and saw a girl with long blonde hair standing behind her. She had on a flat-billed hat that was backwards and her arm was covered in tattoos.

“Is anyone sitting here?” she asked Tobin.

“No have a seat. I’m Tobin and this is Kelley,” Tobin introduced them.

“Ashlyn. Good to meet ya.”

“So Ashlyn what are you here for?” Kelley asked. 

“I’m a music major. Specifically percussion.”

“Woah no way dude! Kelley and I are music majors also! We’re both stringed instruments.” Tobin replied.

Before Ashlyn could respond, a man stepped up to the microphone that was on the stage. As he began to speak the microphone squealed with feedback. Everyone in the auditorium simultaneously put their hands over their ears. 

“Dude sound guy! Turn his microphone down. Jesus!” Ashlyn yelled. 

Tobin and Kelley started to laugh. The man on stage struggled to hide a smile at Ashlyn’s words. 

He thanked Ashlyn for her input and got the crowd to laugh. He then proceeded to talk to them about the activities that the student association had planned for all of the incoming freshmen over the next three days before the other students would start to arrive. He talked about the dormitory meetings that they would have over the next couple of weeks. He also talked about meeting with other people in their chosen majors and some just fun activities that they were not required to attend, but that he thought would be a good idea to. He told them that this was really their only meeting today, but they had rented out a mini-golf course for the evening. 

Tobin looked at Kelley and knew that she would be down for mini-golf later. Finally the dude, who was apparently the dean of the student association, was done speaking. Tobin was a bit bored and her mind had wandered to the things she loved: music, surfing, longboarding and soccer. She was wrenched out of her daydream when Kelley punched her shoulder.

“Yo, what was that for?” 

“Well the meeting has been over for like three minutes and you’re sitting her with glazed eyes and drool coming out of your mouth. We thought you were going to sit her forever. We actually got up and half way left before we realized you weren’t with us.” Kelley said as Ashlyn laughed. 

“I don’t drool!”

“Whatever Tobin. We were going to back to Ashlyn’s suite. She’s in the same dorm as us.”

“Cool. Let’s go.”

The three cut through the campus’s green to get back to their dorm. Tobin was pleasantly surprised that Ashlyn’s room was on the same floor as theirs. However, her room was on the east side of the building, while Tobin and Kelley’s room was on the west side of the building. 

When they got into the room they plopped themselves onto the furniture in the living area.

“So Ashlyn, what’s your roommate like?” Tobin asked.

“Ugh, man she’s so lame. She seems like super high maintenance and sorta snobbish.”

Tobin walked over to one of the bedroom doors. “Her name is Alex Morgan?”

“Yeah, apparently she’s super good at soccer.”

“She can’t be that great. I’ve never heard of her.” Kelley stated.

“Beside’s you can’t trust someone with two first names, right?” Tobin asked with a grin. 

Ashlyn laughed. “Most certainly.”

They had a couple of hours to kill, so Ashlyn plugged in her Wii U. They decided to play Mario Kart. 

“Just to let you know, I pretty much rule at this game.” Ashlyn bragged.

“Whatever, you’ve never played me.” Kelley said.

Tobin decided to keep her mouth shut, because she knew she probably wasn’t very good at it. Video games weren’t really her thing, but with all the trash talk going on her competitiveness was bound to come out.

After about an hour of playing each of them had won four races a piece. Tobin was surprised she seemed to be a natural at this particular game. They knew they only had time for one more game before they needed to head out to the green so they could go to the mini-golf course. 

“So last one. Rainbow Road?” Ashlyn asked.

“Yep.” Kelley replied.

Tobin had no idea what Rainbow Road was, but she agreed. She soon found out. After the first lap when she had fallen off the track no less than five times she began to get frustrated. She was in last place, but both Ashlyn and Kelley were starting to fall off more often. Then she got it, the bullet. She used it and she raced into first place with just a lap to go. 

“No way are you going to beat me Tobs!” Kelley yelled.

Tobin laughed at the nickname that was starting to stick with Kelley and Ashlyn. “I’d worry about yourself,” she replied. 

Tobin concentrated as hard as she could. She was in the zone. She could see the finish line in the distance. When suddenly a blue shell slammed into her kart. She flipped and fell off the course. Of course, in the time it took her to get back to the track Ashlyn had sped past her. She tried her best to overtake her, but it was no use. Ashlyn crossed the finish line first, while Tobin got second. 

“What now? I am the master!” Ashlyn yelled. 

“At least I didn’t get last.” Tobin grinned at Kelley.

“Shut up! I let you get second. Didn’t want you to cry.” Kelley mumbled. 

“Uh huh, whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Hate to stop all the bullshit that is flying around here, but we should probably get going if we want to make mini-golf.” Ashly said.

They gathered their things and walked down to the parking lot next to the green. There were buses lined up to take them to the mini-golf course. They got on third bus, and noticed that the bus only had two seats per row. Ashlyn and Tobin looked at one another. 

“Loser has to sit by herself!” They yelled at the same time as they jumped into a row together. Kelley sighed and sat behind them. 

“You guys suck.”

They waited for the bus to leave by recounting their crazy Mario Kart skills. Tobin and Ashlyn pretty much teamed up on Kelley and how she needed to practice. They were in a heated discussion on which character was better, Yoshi or Toad, when Kelley noticed someone had just sat next to her.

“I hope you don’t mind, but this is pretty much the only seat available.” the girl said with a shrug to her shoulders.

“No problem. I need a break from these two losers anyway.”

The girl laughed. “I’m Christen thanks for letting me sit here.” 

“Kelley. And these two are Ashlyn and Tobin.”

Ashlyn flashed Christen a peace sign and Tobin shook her hand.

“Don’t let her fool you. She’s just butt-hurt cause we wiped the floor with her in Mario Kart.” Tobin said.

Christen smiled. “I love Mario Kart. I pretty much never lose.”

Ashlyn perked up at this. “I guess I know what we’re doing after mini-golf.”

“I’m down. I’ll show you how a pro plays Mario Kart.” Christen laughed.

Kelley couldn’t help but notice how Christen’s smile lit up the room, or rather bus. And when Christen brushed up against her, how her skin tingled.

 

*********

After a good fifteen minute drive they were finally at the mini-golf course. They found out that group sizes were four people so they all got into one group. They got their clubs and balls and it was a fight who was going to be the one who had to take the pink ball. Tobin instantly grabbed the blue one, while Christen grabbed the black one. That left Kelley and Ashlyn to fight over the pink one. Kelley grabbed the red one just a hair before Ashlyn could. 

“Damn. I hate pink.”

“Ha loser, you're too slow!” Kelley exclaimed. 

“Wanna make a bet?” Ashlyn asked.

“I’m interested.” The three other girls said almost in unison.

“So the loser has to buy the other three breakfast tomorrow before our meetings start.” Ashlyn offered.

“Dude I’m down.” Kelley responded.

“Yo, one of you guys is buying me waffles tomorrow morning.” Tobin grinned.

“Sure.” Christen said.

They soon found out that Christen was by far the best at mini-golf. After her third hole-in-one in five holes, the other three didn’t even try to distract her any more. 

“Dude, what are you the Rain Man of mini-golf?” Tobin asked.

“I grew up in a small town. All we had to do was mini-golf.” Christen laughed.

“Figures.” 

Kelley found herself being very excited whenever Christen made a good putt or a hole-in-one. She used every opportunity to give Christen a high-five that she could. She’d think about what that meant later. But right now, she was in a tight race with Tobin and Ashlyn in their little bet. 

It was getting down to the wire. They were on the sixteenth hole out of eighteen and Kelley, Tobin and Ashlyn were all within three strokes of one another. Christen, however was way ahead of them. The hole they were on had a nasty hill that they had get over and then a crazy tunnel thing that the ball had to go through to get to a small square of green. Tobin and Ashlyn successfully got their balls over the hill on the first try. It was Kelley’s turn to putt. She put all of her strength behind her putt, and the ball went over the hill hit the wall and miraculously went into the tunnel. The ball came out of the tunnel skipped over the hole, and hit the back wall and slowly rolled into the hole.

“Holy Crap! I just got a hole in one! Suck it Bitches!” Kelley yelled.

“Good to know that your a gracious winner.” Tobin laughed.

“Whatever! Your just jealous.”

That shot proved to be what Kelley needed to get second place. Ashlyn and Tobin both had problems with that hole and fell behind Kelley. In the end Tobin just edged out Ashlyn for third place.

“Frick, now I have to buy you guys breakfast.” Ashlyn complained.

“Are you thinking of backing out? Cause I will toilet paper your room.” Kelley said.

“How exactly are you going to get in there?” Christen asked.

“I’ll have her roommate, Alex, let me in.”

“Yeah I doubt she would do that. She looks like she doesn’t know how to have fun at all.” Ashlyn said.

They got back on the bus and made the trip back to campus. They went to the student center to grab some food and all made the trek back to Ashlyn’s room so they could continue their Mario Kart tournament. True to her word Christen beat all of them easily every race.

“Geez are you good at everything?” Kelley asked.

“What can I say, I’m pretty much perfect.” Christen joked. 

They stayed up until two in the morning alternating between playing Mario Kart tournaments and watching Netflix. They agreed that they would start a show that none of them had seen. They decided to watching Rules of Engagement. Finally they all went back to their rooms. Christen also happened to live in the same dorm as them just on the second floor, not the third. 

Kelley and Tobin walked back to their room and said goodnight. They set their alarms for 9:30 the next morning. Ashlyn was treating them to breakfast at 10:30. As she crawled into her bed, Tobin thought about how lucky she was to have a good roommate like Kelley and to have met two other awesome girls. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School gets underway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys next chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

Tobin woke to the sound of her alarm going off. She quickly hopped into the shower before Kelley could. She let the cool water wake her up fully, before turning the water warmer. She let the warm water relax her muscles, which had tightened during the night for some reason. After her shower she got ready and dressed for breakfast. 

When Kelley was done getting ready they had fifteen minutes to get to the student center so Ashlyn could buy them their breakfast. They ran into Christen on their way out of the dorm. 

“Hope Ashlyn doesn’t bail on us. I don’t want to start using my meal plan this quickly.” Christen commented. 

“Whatever, you guy’s will most definitely have to buy food at some point.” Ashlyn said as she fell in step with the others. 

“Maybe, maybe not depends if you can actually win any bets.” Tobin joked.

Ashlyn glared at her before their talk turned to the events that were planned for today. When they got to the student center it was pretty much empty. True it was 10:30 and most people had probably already ate breakfast. Ashlyn paid for four meals and they went their separate ways to get food before meeting at a booth near the back of the dining area. 

“Dude you have enough waffles to feed a small country.”

“Shut up Ashlyn I love waffles.” Tobin defended herself. 

“I really don’t want to go to these meetings today.” Ashlyn complained.

“Yeah the dorm one is probably going to suck. But I think the meetings with other people in our majors should be pretty fun.” Christen responded.

“Yeah just means we all get to hang out some more. I mean we are all music majors right?” Kelley asked.

“Yep.”

*******

They arrived at the band rooms for their meeting. They were then divided into smaller groups based on the type of instrument they were majoring in. Ashlyn went off with all the percussionists, while Christen went off with the bass players. Tobin and Kelley stayed together and met with everyone who played guitar. 

The professor who was leading their meeting talked about the course work that they would have to take over the next four years. He also talked about the different ensembles and groups that they would have an opportunity to take part in. They weren’t required but he strongly recommended they be a part of at least one. Tobin was soon bored out of her mind. The meeting was finally over and she walked back to her suite with Kelley. They grabbed their guitars and started playing. They were messing around in the key of A when there was a knock on their door.

Tobin got up and opened it to see Christen standing there, an acoustic bass in her hand. 

“Mind if I get in on this?”

“Dude get in here!” Kelley yelled.

“Yeah come on in. We’re just messing around.” Tobin said.

They spent an hour or so just playing whatever came to their minds. They ran through some songs that they all knew and by the end of an hour they were trying to out do each other with licks or riffs that they had memorized. 

Kelley found herself looking over at Christen as they played. She thought it was cute how Christen’s face scrunched up when she was concentrating or playing a particularly tricky bass line. 

“How long have you been playing Christen?” Kelley asked.

“For like six years. I started kind of late, but I fell in love with it.”

“Cool.” Kelley smiled. 

When it was nearing five they decided to go to supper. They stopped by Ashlyn’s room to get her for supper. 

“Ashlyn, is your roommate ever at the suite?” Tobin asked.

“No she spends most of her time with the soccer chicas.”

“Dude she’s like all mysterious.” Kelley said.

“Yeah if by mysterious you mean shallow and vain, then you’d be spot on. I mean she has like three different shampoos and spends two hours in the bathroom doing make-up and her hair.” Ashlyn said. 

“Dude that is insane.” 

They made their way to the student center and grabbed what was becoming their normal spot near the back of the dining hall. They ate and then made their way back to the dorms for the meeting there. They made sure they got there a little early so they could snag one of the couches that were actually comfortable in the lounge of the dorm. The meeting was about trivial things like rules on having guests staying in their rooms and other things that would make everyone’s lives a little easier. 

After the meeting they returned to Ashlyn’s room, her roommate was nowhere to be seen, and watched more Rules of Engagement. They stayed up pretty late because the next two days were free days before classes started. They made plans to all get together and jam the next day.

*******

They had been jamming for over three hours. Ashlyn had brought her practice pad to just play some beats on while the others did their thing. There were discarded pizza boxes stacked near the door to Ashlyn’s suite. Water bottles and pop cans littered the floor. 

“We need to do this at least once a week or everyday.” Kelley said.

“Yeah its been a while since I’ve had people that I can play music with.” replied Tobin.

So they made plans to make Sunday’s a day where they could play music together. Of course they wanted to try and do that more than once a week, but when classes started they realized with homework and on-campus jobs that would probably be unlikely. 

Suddenly Ashlyn’s phone started buzzing. She looked at it and instantly answered it.

“Hey. Oh really. Sweet my room number is 311.”

“Who was that?” Christen asked.

“Geez nosy aren’t we?” Ashlyn answered with a smile.

“I’m going to assume we will find out pretty quick. She did give whoever it was her room number.” Tobin laughed.

“Yeah you’ll get to meet the mystery person soon.” Ashlyn smiled. 

They resumed their playing, but Ashlyn couldn’t stop moving. She bounced her legs and just kept fidgeting until ten minutes later there was a knock on the door. Ashlyn jumped up and opened the door. In the doorway their stood a girl with long dark hair. Ashlyn launched herself at the girl and gave her a bone crushing hug and a kiss.

“Woo Hoo! Get it Ashlyn!” Kelley yelled.

Ashlyn pulled away her face red. “Oh hey guys. This is my girlfriend Ali. She’s a sophomore here.” 

“What up Ali?” Tobin asked.

“Uh not much,” Ali responded clearly overwhelmed.

“This is Kelley, Tobin and Christen.” Ashlyn introduced Ali to each girl individually.

“Pleased to meet you all.” Ali said once the initial shock of having three freshmen in your face at once wore off. “See I told you that you would meet some cool people right away. She was pretty nervous about not meeting anyone cool.”

Ashlyn flushed even redder than before. “You’re such a jerk Ali. But you should meet my roommate. She’s not cool.”

“Yeah the mysteriously uncool roommate that none of us have ever met. Apparently she doesn’t really spend much time in the room.” Tobin joked.

“Well she can’t be that bad if she’s never here.” Ali laughed.

“I guess so.” Ashlyn said.

Ali then sat down on the couch. Tobin made a move to get up so Ashlyn could sit next to her but Ali stopped her.

“You don’t have to move. I don’t really want to sit next to that loser anyway.”

Ashlyn pouted and flipped Ali off. “Jerk.” 

Ali pretended to be offended. But she couldn’t hold up the act for very long before she pulled Ashlyn down next to her. “So I see you found some other people who are into music. Play for me?”

Ashlyn looked at the others before turning back to Ali. “Well we were just kind of screwing around. We weren’t really playing anything in particular.”

“That’s ok. I just wanna hear actually play with other people.”

They all grabbed their respective instruments and started playing what they were before Ashlyn had gotten Ali’s call. Ali began to tap her foot to the beat of the music and Tobin could tell she was very proud of Ashlyn. She had a goofy smile on her face while she looked at Ashlyn while she played. Of course Ashlyn was concentrating too hard to see the way Ali was looking at her. 

After about ten minutes they stopped playing and looked at Ali for some feedback.

“It was really good. It flowed really well. But I have to go unpack so I’ll see you guys later? What are you doing for supper?”

“Probably eating at the student center again.” Ashlyn responded.

“Nope. We are going to go to a pizzeria or something. No way am I having student center food my first day back. I know a great place like three blocks from campus.”

“Sounds good! I love pizza.” Kelley exclaimed. 

“I’m beginning to think that you just love eating in general.” Tobin muttered.

“I heard that and you’re just jealous.”

“Ok I’ll meet you guys back here in like an hour. Oh by the way, I’m the third floor RA so if you anything don’t hesitate to come and ask.” Ali told them before she walked out the door and to her room. 

“Dang you’re dating the RA. We should be able to get away with anything.” Christen joked.

“Whatever. I’ll be able to get away with anything. You guys not so much.” 

An hour later Ali took them all to the pizzeria. It was called Tony’s Pizza of all things, and it had a nice mom and pop diner kind of feel. They ordered two pepperoni pizzas and Tobin, Kelley, Christen and Ashlyn quickly decided that it was the best pizza they had ever tasted. 

*******

The first week of classes was finally underway. Tobin was glad to find out that she had Intro to Music Theory with Kelley, Christen and Ashlyn. Kelley was in her Guitar Method class. She had Lit 101 with Ashlyn and Christen was in her History course she was taking. The only class she had without one of her friends was College Algebra. Which she was going to suck at. However she sat next to a girl with short hair who seemed pretty cool. They had talked for a bit before the class started and had exchanged phone numbers after the class was over.

Tobin had found out her name was Meghan and also lived in their dorm. Just on the second floor, same as Christen. Tobin was beginning to find out that most incoming freshman were put in the same dorm. She knew that college was going to a step up from high school, but she wasn't expecting this much homework the first week of school. It had thrown her off a little when the first class period of each class was spent covering the syllabus. She cursed herself for getting into the mind set that it wouldn’t be that hard, if they spent a whole hour covering a syllabus. Boy was she wrong, when at the end of pretty much every class the professor told them to have read the first chapter in their book by the next class period. 

The biggest difference was how much more was expected out of them in the music classes. Tobin was excited about this, because music was why she was here. She had offers from many schools to come their to major in music. But the University of Oregon had just felt right. With all of her classes over for the day she walked back to her dorm room so she could start on homework. 

*****

Kelley walked up to the the building that housed all of the choir rooms. She had decided on a whim to try out for the freshman choir. She had done some vocal stuff when she was in high school and even though she wasn’t majoring in voice, she thought it would be fun to get back into singing. She walked into the room where there was an informal meeting being held for anyone who was interested. She was surprised to see Christen sitting on one of the risers. She walked over to her.

“Fancy seeing you here.” Kelley said.

Christen turned around and punched Kelley lightly on the arm. She moved over so Kelley could sit down next to her. “I didn’t know you were interested in choir.”

Kelley laughed. “I was in my high school choir, I just thought it would be fun to at least get some information.”

Just then one of the voice professors walked into the room. He surveyed the room and the thirty or so freshman that were seated there. 

“So this is the informal meeting for our freshman choir. I know that all of the vocal majors have already received this information so they were not required to attend. The good news is that since this is the freshman choir you are automatically accepted into it. There are no try outs and no one will be turned away.”

Kelley breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that. She knew she had an ok singing voice but the idea of having to try out had been weighing on her mind. The professor than passed around a piece of paper that they could sign up on. Kelley put down her name, phone number and school e-mail address. After the paper and gotten to everyone the professor then handed out a small blue binder to everyone there. Inside there was some sheet music. 

He then went to the piano and started playing the first song in the binder. Everyone hesitated but got into the flow of the song and they started to sing. Kelley could tell that it was the first time they had sang together. It didn’t sound terrible, but she could tell that it needed some work. What she was most surprised by was how beautiful Christen’s voice was. She found herself listening specifically for her, to the point where she almost stopped singing herself.

After they were done with that song they were dismissed from the meeting. The professor told them that he would e-mail everyone with a schedule for their practices. Kelley and Christen walked back to their dorm.

“I’m glad we don’t have to try out, I doubt I would have made it if we did.” Christen suddenly said.

“Are you kidding, you have an amazing voice.” Kelley responded.

Christen blushed a little bit. “Thank you. You have a pretty good voice yourself.” 

Kelley felt herself blush at the comment. She also knew that she would do anything to get Christen to compliment her again like that. She also was beginning to realize that Christen seemed to be a little nervous around her. She was acting almost exactly like Kelley did when she was around Christen. Kelley began to wonder if it was possible that Christen maybe felt the same way about her. She quickly pushed that line of thought out of her mind, not wanting to get her hopes up. They finally got back to their dorm. They stopped at the second floor landing and Christen pulled Kelley into a hug.

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Christen said as she opened the door to her floor.

“See ya.” 

Kelley walked up the flight of stairs to her floor, her skin still feeling like it was on fire from the hug. She walked into her room and flopped onto her bed. Her mind was racing a hundred miles per hour with thoughts about Christen.

“Crap, I’m in deep over this girl.” She said to no one in particular.

“What? Did you say something?” Tobin shouted from her room.

Crap, Kelley thought. I can’t say that stuff out loud. “Uh I hit my shin on my desk and it startled me.” Kelley lied.

“Klutz!” Tobin yelled back.

“Night Tobs.”

“Night Kelley.”

She shut her door and got ready for bed. She turned off the light and fell asleep with her thoughts still turned to Christen.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter. My work schedule has been insane lately. Hopefully I can update soon. Hope you enjoy it!

Their first week of classes were finally over. Tobin finally had grabbed her long board and was zipping around campus. The wind felt good on her face and it felt good whipping through her hair. She made a couple laps around the main area of the university before sitting down underneath a tree on the green. 

“Yo, Tobin! Whats going on?”

Tobin looked up and saw Meghan from her Algebra class walking towards her. 

“What up Meghan. How’s the weekend treating you?”

“Not to bad. Not to bad. Just enjoying the warm weather.”

“Same here.”

Meghan noticed that Tobin was holding onto her longboard. “No way Tobin. You longboard too?”

“Yep. Been doing it forever.”

“Nice, we’ll have to longboard around town sometime.”

“For sure dude that would be sweet.”

Meghan waved goodbye and said something about finding her bestie Moe.

Tobin had no idea who Moe was, but she knew that it probably wasn’t Moe from the Three Stooges. She laughed to herself at her own joke and long boarded back to her dorm room, where Kelley was sitting doing homework. 

“Are you really doing homework on a Saturday?” Tobin asked as she entered the room.

“Yeah I mean we have our jam session tomorrow.”

“I don’t think that will take all day Kelley.”

“Whatever Tobs, you’ll just be mad when I’m done tomorrow and you have to scramble at ten at night.”

Suddenly there was a knock on their door. Tobin got up and shuffled over and opened their door. She grinned when she saw Ashlyn standing there. 

“Yo dudes. Ali says there’s a party going down at one of the houses just off campus. You guys in?”

“Yep!” Kelley practically screamed.

Tobin wasn’t so sure. She wasn’t really a party goer and she didn’t really drink all that much.

“Come on Tobin. It’ll be fun. Don’t walk the straight and narrow line so much.” Ashlyn joked.

“All right. I’m down.” Tobin finally replied.

“Cool! Ali and I are heading over there at like 11ish. Come to my room and we’ll walk there together.” Ashlyn said as she walked out of their dorm room. 

Tobin went back into her room and was actually kind of excited to go to her first college party. She grabbed her guitar and worked on some of the guitar lessons she had gotten as homework in one of her guitar method class. She ran through the scales and chord progressions that she knew by heart. It was amazing how playing the guitar could calm her down so much, no matter what she was feeling. 

Suddenly she hit on a chord progression that she thought sounded pretty cool. It was F#m minor chord to an A chord, but she played the 7th with the A instead of playing just a straight A. The A7 chord went to a B chord that finally ended with a D chord. She had been absentmindedly playing it for the last five minutes when Kelley knocked on her bedroom door, before stepping in.

“Are your hands stuck on repeat or something?” Kelley asked. 

Tobin was jerked out of her own mind. “What?” 

“You’ve been playing those same four chords over and over again for the last five minutes.”

“Oh sorry. I guess I liked the way they went together and then just started thinking.” Tobin responded.

“No worries I guess. I was just curious. Are you trying to write a song?” Kelley asked.

The thought of trying to write her own song had never really entered Tobin’s mind. “No I doubt I could write anything that was really that good.” But the more she thought about it, maybe she should give it a try.

“Oh well. So what are you going to wear to the party?” Kelley asked.

Tobin sighed. “I guess I haven’t really thought about it that much. Probably what I normally wear.”

“I guess that wouldn’t be too bad. Just don’t wear that ugly green shirt.” Kelley said.

“What Iove that green shirt…”

“Just don’t wear it.”

“Ok fashion police.”

Kelley laughed and walked back to her bedroom. 

 

********

It was still a few hours before they were going to meet Ashlyn to go to the party. Tobin however needed to go to Ashlyn’s room because she had borrowed her Lit textbook. Of course, Ashlyn hadn’t bought any of her books yet even though the semester had started a week ago. She realized that she should probably try and do some of her homework in the afternoon if she was going to party tonight. There was no telling how late she would be up and if she was really going to feel like doing it tomorrow after partying tonight. 

She walked up to Ashlyns dorm room and knocked. After a couple seconds the door opened.

“Hey Ashlyn, do you have my Lit book?” Tobin asked before she looked up.

“What?” a raspy voice answered.

Tobin looked up into the face of a girl that was beautiful. Her eyes were the bluest that she had ever seen. Tobin felt herself start to blush. “Oh sorry I thought you were Ashlyn. You must be Alex.”

“Uh yeah this is my dorm room.”

“Is Ashlyn here?”

“No I think she went to the RA’s room for something.”

“Sorry to bother you,” and before she could stop and think about what she was doing Tobin stuck out her hand. “I’m Tobin it’s nice to finally meet you.”

Alex took her hand with a skeptical look on her face. “Alex.” With that she walked back into the room and shut the door in Tobin’s face.

“Cool thanks for your help.” Tobin muttered. She left and started to walk towards Ali’s room. Then she thought better of it. She didn’t know what they could possibly be doing. So she texted Ashlyn real quick instead. She got a reply telling her to come to Ali’s room. So she resumed walking over there and knocked on the door. Ali opened the door and invited Tobin inside. 

“Hey Tobin. How was your first week of class.”

“It was pretty good. I have a ton of homework already.”

Ali laughed. “Wait till mid-terms.”

Ashlyn walked into the main area of Ali’s room. The RA’s were lucky because they had a two bedroom suite to themselves. 

“Here’s the book Tobs. Sorry I had it so long”   
“No worries dude. I actually just met your roommate. She’s not really that nice.”

“Oh so you finally met Alex. I’m sorry Tobs.”

“It’s ok. So I’m going to do that Lit assignment and I’ll see you guys in a few hours.”

Ali and Ashlyn said goodbye and Tobin walked back to her room. On the way back she couldn’t help but think about how gorgeous Alex was. Even though she practically slammed a door in her face Tobin wanted to see her again. If only to look at her eyes.

 

*********

Kelley pulled out her phone and went her contact for Christen. 

Hey Ashlyn said that there’s a party going on tonight. Are you down to go? -KO

She only had to wait about a minute before she got a response.

Yup. She told me about it already. Wanna be my beer pong partner?- Christen

Kelley smiled when she saw the text appear on her phone. 

“How do you know there will be beer pong? Are you in the know?- KO

It’s a college party. There has to be beer pong.-Christen

Kelley immediately felt a little dumb when Christen texted her back. Of course there would be beer pong. It wouldn’t be much of a party if there wasn’t. 

True dat homie. What do you think I should wear?-KO

I don’t know Kel. Probably something that makes you look frumpy.-Christen

:( Why would you say that?-KO

Because it was funny. So just dress normal. It’ s not like its a theme party or anything.-Christen.

You’re right. You are always right.-KO

Finally someone starts to realize that ;) -Christen.

See you in a couple of hours. -KO

See ya! -Christen.

Kelley smiled and finished with her assignment was had been working on. She jumped into the shower and let the water refresh her. When she was done showering she dried off and went into her bedroom and put on something that she thought looked good on her. She did her make-up and straightened her hair. After an hour and half she was finally done. She went into the living area just as Tobin was walking into their dorm room. 

“Tobin we only have like an hour before we need to get to Ashlyn’s room!” 

“Yeah so it’ll only take me like half an hour to get ready.”

Typical Tobin, Kelley thought. Tobin quickly showered and dressed. She didn’t really put any make up on and left her hair in a messy bun. But she did have on a striped v-neck and some skinny jeans that Kelley thought looked really good on her.

“Woah Tobs dressed to impress.”

“Ha thanks Kelley. You too.”

They grabbed their keys and walked down to Christen’s room. Kelley couldn’t help but notice how good Christen looked. She had the sudden urge to try and hold her hand but she restrained herself. They then walked up to Ashlyn’s room. Tobin knocked on the door, somewhat hoping that Alex would answer again. To her disappointment Ashlyn answered it and shut the door behind her.

“Hey guys we just gotta grab Ali real quick. And then we can PARTY!!!” Ashlyn yelled as she flailed her arms around.

“Woah Ashlyn. Are you drunk already?” Kelley asked.

“No just super excited. I mean this is our first college party!”

Tobin and Kelley laughed as they walked down to Ali’s room. They knocked on her door and when she came out they walked outside and headed for the house.

“So first things first. I’m technically not supposed to go to this party because there will be drinking and I’m an RA and all that jazz. So keep it on the down low. Besides most of the RA’s will be there unless they are on duty. Also this is at one of the baseball houses. So it will probably get pretty wild. Just don’t let those guys take advantage of you, because they will try.” Ali said.

They all told Ali they wouldn’t let guys take advantage of them. They were just excited to get to the party and meet some new people, and to let loose after their first week of classes.

“Hey Tobin! Wait up.”

They all looked around and Tobin saw that Meghan was walking behind them with another girl. 

“Hey Meghan what’s up?” Tobin asked 

“Not much just heading to the party? Are you?”   “Yep.”

“Oh by the way this is Morgan. Or as I like to call her, Moe.”

In turn, Tobin introduced Meghan and Morgan to Ali, Ashlyn, Kelley and Christen. After the introductions they walked the rest of the way to the house. When they stepped inside the music was loud and there were people everywhere. 

“Well, I think this is going to be really fun.” Kelley said.

Tobin agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys thanks for being patient! Hopefully i can update more often but Im swamped again at work. Hope you enjoy the chapter

Immediately Ashlyn and Ali went off on their own. Christen pulled Kelley toward the beer pong table hoping to play the winner of the game in progress. Tobin looked at Morgan and Meghan.

“So, should we grab something to drink?” Tobin asked.

“Already on it.” Meghan responded.

The girls made their way to the kitchen where a keg was set up. The guy running the tap gave them each a cup. They walked over to where Christen and Kelley were just beginning to play a game against two of the baseball players. Tobin laughed when the game was over before it really even began. Kelley and Christen were not really that good at beer pong. 

Christen and Kelley made their way over to where they were standing. “Did you guys see our epic failure of a game?” Kelley asked.

“Yeah, bummer guys.” Tobin said.

“No i missed it I must have blinked at just the right moment.” Meghan stated.

Tobin and Christen laughed, while Kelley just glared at Meghan. 

“Ok don’t give her any crap. I will remember that.” Meghan laughed.

“Christen and I will win a game of beer pong before the night is over. I promise you that.” Kelley replied.

“Sorry dude.” Tobin said to Christen.

Christen sighed but was inwardly excited at the possibility of spending the night with Kelley trying to win at beer pong. She had no illusions that they would actually win, they were pretty terrible. Kelley’s enthusiasm was infectious to Christen though. 

“Of course we will.” Christen responded.

Christen and Kelley made their way back to the kitchen for another beer while Tobin, Morgan and Meghan went outside. There were quite a few people just milling around on the porch and the front lawn. They talked about everything from where they were from, what they were majoring and just random aspects about their lives. Tobin learned that Morgan and Meghan had known each other since they were six years old. After talking for awhile Tobin excused herself so she could get another beer. She walked back into the kitchen and the same kid was working the tap on the keg.

“Back for another? Pegged you as a one beer drunk.”   
“Whatever dude, just give me another beer.”

Tobin took her beer from the guy and mentally yelled at him for being a jerk. His little dig really didn’t bother her that much, but she was surprised that someone could and would be so douchey. She wasn’t really looking where she was going when she bumped into someone.

“Shit I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention.” Tobin stammered.

“No shit. Jesus.” 

Tobin looked at who she had ran into. It was Ashlyn’s roommate Alex.

Geez. Her eyes are so blue. I could stare at them all day long, Tobin thought to herself.

“Sorry Alex.”

Alex looked at the girls she was with and frowned. “I’m sorry I don’t recall your name, but you should watch where you’re going when you’re walking.”

“Yo! She just apologized, maybe you should accept like a decent human being and move on.”

Tobin looked at who had suddenly came to her defense. She was surprised to see Meghan there with Ashlyn right behind her.

“Whatever.” Alex said as she walked away.

“Hey thanks Meghan.”

“No problem Tobin. She seems to be a special kind of someone.” Meghan said as she glared at Alex’s back.

“Yeah tell me about it. She’s my fricken roommate.” Ashlyn added.

“Sorry. Your life must suck.” Meghan replied. 

Ashlyn walked them to another room where Ali was waiting. There were card games going on and there was a dart board set up in the corner of the room. Meghan went to go get Morgan and then they joined a game of Fuck the Dealer. Tobin was getting extremely lucky and not having to drink too much at all. Tobin was thoroughlyy enjoying her first party. She looked over at her friends. She could tell that Morgan and Meghan were getting drunk, because they were not doing to well at the games they were playing. Tobin smiled to herself and was glad that she had found the friends she had so far. But she couldn’t keep her thoughts from Alex and her stunning beauty.

She had known for a while that she was into girls instead of boys and had wrestled with the implications of that. She hadn’t told anyone yet and wasn’t sure if she was ready to. 

*******

Kelley was on her fourth beer already and she was heading back to the kitchen to get the fifth one. The dude pouring out beers knew her name by now and was slowly becoming impressed with the amount of alcohol that she was putting away without becoming drunk. As she grabbed her next beer she looked around for Christen and noticed that she was not too far way. 

When Kelley saw that Christen saw that she was staring, she turned away and began to blush. Suddenly she felt someone grab her arm. She looked up and saw a guy staring back at her. His eyes where a little bloodshot and Kelley could tell that he was buzzing pretty hard already. 

Fuck…Kelley thought.

“How’s it going, I’m Nate.” He said.

“Nice to meet you Nate, Kelley.”

“So got any plans for the rest of the night?”

Well that was forward, Kelley thought. “Yeah, I was going to stay at the party, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know, this party isn’t up to my usual standards. Why don’t you come and hang out with me and my friends?”

“Nah, I’m going to stay and hang out with my friends and win at beer pong.”

“That’s lame, our little shindig will be some much better Kelley.”

“Sorry, my friends and I came here together and we were going to chill.”

“Lame…..”

Kelley just wanted to get away, but all of her signals that she was uncomfortable were lost on Nate. He tried to grab Kelley’s hand. She roughly pulled it away from his.

“Seriously this party is so lame.” Nate said.

“I’m actually having a lot of fun.” Kelley replied. 

“Hey Kelley is there a problem here?” Christen asked as she walked up to Kelley and Nate.

“Nope I was just leaving.” Nate said as he turned around.

“Thanks, Christen. That guy was getting so annoying. He wanted me to ditch the party and hang out with his friends.”

“No problem. I could tell you were getting super uncomfortable.”

“My knight in shining armor.” Kelley said. 

Christen laughed as Kelley inwardly scolded herself for being so forward. She couldn’t really blame the alcohol because she really hadn’t had that much to drink yet. But she was glad that Christen laughed and didn’t get all weird about it. 

Christen touched Kelley’s arm. “I will always be there to get you out of those awkward situations.”

Kelley smiled and suddenly felt like there was a hundred butterflies in her stomach. “So should we head back to the beer pong table and try and regain our dignity there?”

“That sounds like a perfect plan.”

They headed back into the room where the beer pong was being played and patiently waited their turn to play again.

Finally when it was their turn they actually were able to beat the team that they were up against. Christen hugged Kelley and Kelley could have sworn an electric current was racing through her skin and veins. 

Christen smirked when she saw who their next opponents were. “So you think you can actually beat Kelley and me?”

“Dude, no worries. You’ll be crying when we are through with you guys.” Ashlyn responded with a smile. Ali just kind of rolled her eyes and took the ball. She rolled it back to Kelley and Kelley took her first shot. Of course she missed, but it was okay because Christen was actually pretty good at beer pong. Christen of course sunk her ball into one of the back cups.

“Do I have to carry this team every time we play?” she joked.

Kelley playfully punched her on the arm and awaited Ali and Ashlyn’s shots. They of course both went in and Kelley and Christen had to roll the ping pong balls back to them. The game went on for awhile because after the first round no one seemed to be able to actually make a shot. Finally Ashlyn got on a hot streak and it was soon 2 cups to 7 cups left.

“Come on Kel, we need to pick it up.” Christen mumbled.

Kelley concentrated, and threw her ball. It landed in one of the cups. Christen threw her ball and it too landed in the cup. They got balls back and Kelley tossed. It hit the rim of one of the cups and bounced out.

“Shit!”

Christen once again made a cup and then it was 2 cups to 5 cups left.

“Ready to lose this round?” Ali asked them.

“Dang I expected the trash talk out of Ashlyn, but you too Ali? That hurts.” Kelley pouted.

True to her word both Ashlyn and Ali made their cups and Kelley and Christen were forced to leave the table so others could play.

“Damn we weren’t even close to beating them. Now Ashlyn will never let us forget that she beat us.” Christen complained.

“Oh well, at least we lost in style.” Kelley smirked. 

They continued drinking well into the night. When it was nearing two in the morning Tobin found Kelley and Christen.

“Hey guys. I’m going to head back with Moe and Meghan.”

“All right I think we’re going to head back pretty quick too. We’re going to watch this last game of beer pong.”

“Cool, cool see you tomorrow for jam time.” Tobin said as she walked away. 

They watched another game of beer pong then headed for the door. They had no idea where Ali and Ashlyn were. They had disappeared earlier in the evening after they lost at beer pong three games after beating Kelley and Christen. 

They walked out of the house and Christen couldn’t help but admire Kelley as she walked in front of her. She knew that she liked Kelley and wasn’t sure how long she would be able to hide that fact. It was probably the alcohol speaking but she decided to do something about it. Besides unless she was really bad at reading people, she thought that Kelley might be into her too.

She ran to catch up to Kelley and put her hand into Kelley’s. Kelley looked at her and Christen could have sworn she saw her smile. 

“Kelley, I know this is random and I have only known you for a week, but you are the coolest person I have ever met.” 

“Aww thanks Christen. You are by far the prettiest person I have ever met.” Kelley responded.

Christen smiled and knew that she had judged the situation correctly. They walked the rest of the way to their dorm in silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence, but one where both girls were content. As they neared Christen’s dorm room she stopped and looked at Kelley.

“So would it be ok if we went to coffee or something just the two of us?”

Kelley looked up at Christen and pulled her into a hug. “I would like that.”

“Cool. I’ll text you tomorrow.” 

They hugged one more time before Christen walked into her dorm room. Kelley mentally gave herself a high-five as she walked up to her room. As she opened the door to the living area she could hear Tobin softly snoring in her bedroom. She went into her bedroom and crawled into bed. She fell asleep with a big smile on her face.

*****

The next day all four of the girls were a little hung over as they played their respective instruments. They were in Ali’s room, because Ashlyn didn’t want to jam in hers when Alex was there. Plus Ali’s RA room was quite a bit bigger than their rooms. They were running through a couple of songs that they all knew really well, and were quickly becoming staples of their jam sessions. 

Ali was sitting on the couch in the room listening to them. She was thinking about how awesome it was for Ashlyn to have something like this. She had always dreamed of finding other people to play with on a regular basis. After they had ran through the song Empire by Of Monsters and Men Ali had a sudden idea.

“Hey you guys. You should form a band the four of you.” Ali said as they finished the song.

They all looked at her curiously before turning back to each other.

“I don’t know. I mean it would be a lot of work.” Tobin said.

“Dude come on it would be fun. It wouldn’t have to be anything super serious when we start.” Ashlyn countered.

Kelley and Christen looked at each other, and Ali swore that it looked like they were having a conversation with each other using just their eyes. Did something happen there? Ali wondered. She made a mental note to investigate that earlier. She had seen how they looked at each other but didn’t think that anything would happen between them so soon.

“I mean I’m down it would be fun. Just so it doesn’t interfere with my studies.” Christen said, as Kelley nodded in agreement.

“Ok I guess I’m down too.” Tobin said.

“Cool! So I guess Sunday’s are practice days then?” Ashlyn asked.

“Yeah, but we need to get you a real drum set not just a practice pad.” Tobin said.

“Let me take care of that. I’ll talk to some of the percussion instructors. See if we can practice in the band rooms so I can use one of the kits there.” Ashlyn said.

They agreed to have an informal meeting to discuss some things during the middle of the week. They were going to discuss what they should call themselves, where they want to play, what type of music and most importantly who was going to sing.

As the others left Ashlyn smiled to herself. She was beyond excited.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a pretty short chapter, but its kinda fluff idk whatevs

To say Kelley was nervous was a little bit of an understatement. Sure she was only going to get a cup of coffee with Christen, but it was really the first time they were hanging out together without everyone else. She checked her make up and how she looked in the mirror for what must have been the twentieth time. When she was sure that she looked good, she checked her phone for the time. It was 6:24 and she needed to go to Christen’s room by 6:30. 

She sighed and walked out of her dorm room. She made her way slowly down to the second floor to Christen’s room. She waited outside of it for a minute to calm the butterflies that seemed to be trying to escape from her stomach. She took a deep breath in and knocked on the door. Within twenty seconds Christen opened the door and stepped out. Kelley swore that she forgot how to breathe for a minute when she laid eyes on Christen. 

Damn…she looks hot, was all that Kelley could manage to think.

“Hey Kelley ready to go get some java?” Christen asked.

“Yeah, i’ve been needing a coffee all day.” Kelley joked. 

They walked to a small coffee shop that was a couple of blocks away from their dorm room and sat at one of the booths near the back of the building. After they had put their stuff down they went to the register to order. Kelley wasn’t sure what she wanted so she told Christen to order first. After she was done ordering she told the barista to put Kelley’s drink on her tab also. Kelley tried to protest and say that she could pay for her own, but Christen quickly shushed her. So Kelley ordered her drink and Christen paid for them. 

The barista told them she would bring their drinks to them. They walked back to their booth and sat down.

“I could have paid for mine.” Kelley said.

Christen smiled. “I asked you out for coffee so I think I should probably pay.”

Kelley couldn’t help the smile that was creeping onto her face. That was basically the confirmation she needed to know that this was a real date, even if it was a low key one. If she was being honest with herself, she was glad that their first “date” really wasn’t an extravagant thing.

“So Kelley I know you’re from Georgia. What was it like growing up there?” Christen suddenly asked. 

“I really enjoyed growing up in Georgia. The people were pretty nice and it was just a great place to live. It was awesome having that southern culture in my life. I mean I basically am a Georgia Peach.” Kelley said with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Christen laughed and instantly knew that she wanted to go out on another date with Kelley. For her part Kelley felt the same way. They both felt a certain sort of magnetism to the other. This magnetism both fascinated and scared Kelley.

They lost track of time while they talked and learned more about each other. What their childhood’s were like, what they wanted to do with their lives, what was important to them. Suddenly one of the baristas came up to them and informed them that the coffee shop was actually closing in ten minutes. They grabbed their cups and brought them to the counter and walked out the door. 

“So what do you think about this whole band thing?” Christen asked as they walked back to their dorm.

“I think it will be a lot of fun. But, I’m kind of like you. I don’t want it to interfere with my studies. Besides we jam enough, and have some chord patterns down that it shouldn’t be too hard to make songs out of them.”

“Yeah i was thinking the same thing. We need a good name though.” Christen replied.

“I’m not too worried about that. Between Ashlyn and Tobin they are bound to come up with something that is interesting and out there.”

They both laughed as they walked into the dorm. As they approached Christens room, Kelley pulled her into a hug. “Thanks for the coffee. I had an awesome time.” As they pulled apart Kelley noticed that Christen’s eyes were lingering on her lips. Kelley mentally gave herself a high five and started to lean in. She noticed that Christen leaned in when she saw Kelley leaning in. When their lips met, Kelley could have sworn that her lips were on fire. It wasn’t the most passionate kiss that she had ever had, but she knew that this was the kiss that meant the most to her. It didn’t last all that long and it was pretty chaste, but Kelley was reeling. 

“Woah…” Christen breathed.

“Yeah…”

“So uh, do you want to watch a movie or something in my room. My roommate is probably asleep so we won’t have to worry about her.”

Kelley smiled. “Yes let’s do that.”

They walked into Christen’s bedroom and sat on her bed. Christen put in a random movie and sat next to Kelley. “Hey beforeI start this can I tell you something?”

Kelley was intrigued and nodded.

“Ok so I know I really like you, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for the others to know about this yet.”

“Yeah me either. But what is this. What are we?”

“I think that we went on a date and I want to go on another one soon. Then when we are ready we can talk about what we are.” Christen responded.

“Awesome. Exactly what I want and need right now.” Kelley was amazed at how on the same page they seemed to be. They watched the movie pressed up against one another and slowly they drifted off to sleep. As her eyes started to close, Kelley couldn’t help but think of how good it felt to fall asleep with Christen’s arms wrapped around her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long. Bartending takes it out of me.... short chapter...

Chapter 6

The room was filled with the sound of instruments being tuned and the crash of cymbals. Ali sat in a corner as the other four women in the band room got ready to play. She opened her textbook that she was studying out of, just as a particularly loud snare drum hit scared the crap out of her. She took a deep breath and smiled, knowing that Ashlyn liked that she would attend their “jam sessions.” 

“Dude, so I actually don’t have that much homework this weekend. It was almost a slack week for me.”

“Shut it Tobs, some of us aren’t so lucky.” Kelley responded.

Ali rolled her eyes at the antics of the freshmen. They had no idea what they were in for when mid terms came around, and when they actually started getting into their major courses and not just taking all general classes. 

Finally after another fifteen minutes they were set up in one of the smaller band rooms. Ali pulled out her earplugs and inserted them into her ears. She concentrated on her homework while they ran through a song that had a a driving beat and was a little bit heavier than most of the stuff that they normally ran through. By the end of the song Ali realized that it was going to be impossible to actually get anything done so she put her stuff into her backpack and just sat against the wall and enjoyed the music. Immediately they went into another song, this one Ali recognized as Little Monster by Royal Blood. Another song that has maybe a bit heavier than what they usually played. Ali was intrigued by this sudden change of direction in their music style.

“So is this a new directions?” she asked when they had finished playing the song.

“No, just something different.” Tobin immediately answered.

“Yeah I don’t think that any of us could take ourselves seriously if this was all that we played.” Christen chimed in.

Ali was inwardly thankful that they were just messing around.

“I don’t know guys I kinda like jamming Royal Blood.” Ashlyn said with a smile.

“I mean we could add it to the set list.” Tobin responded.

They immediately took a vote and decided that Little Monster would be a song that they would put into the setlist. 

“I guess I don’t really want to be pigeonholed into one style of music.” Kelley said. “I want to be versatile.”

“I thought that this wasn’t that serious.” Ali laughed.

“The more I think about it, the more serious I am about it.” Kelley said.

Everyone in the band quickly agreed that they were becoming more serious about it also.

“So how about a name?” Ali pushed. She knew that if she didn’t bring these things up, they would probably just jam on the weekends and never get anywhere. Despite that everyone was apparently “serious” about being in a band now.

“Yeah we probably need one of those huh?” Ashlyn asked.

“Does anyone have any ideas?” asked Tobin.

“No…I’m not good with coming up with names.” Kelley said with a frown.

“What about The Shootout?” Christen suddenly said.

“I like it!” Kelley exclaimed. This made Ali look up suddenly. She knew something happened between Christen and Kelley and was now even more determined to get to the bottom of it. 

Tobin and Ashlyn also liked the name so it was decided that they would be called The Shootout. With the important task of coming up with a name finally completed they proceeded to run through all of the other songs that they knew. 

Ali sat back and listened to their set, which she was rapidly beginning to know by heart, and had to admit that they were starting to sound pretty good. She was beginning to think that maybe this being serious about the band wasn’t such a far out idea any more. 

*****

Tobin was sitting at her desk listening to some tunes, trying to get some of her homework done for the week, before the weekend came along. She was excited where the band was going and how quickly they had formed a setlist, right now consisting of all covers, but it was coming together. She had found a small coffee shop three blocks away from campus that had local bands play most weekends and was trying to figure out how to get a gig there. She needed to talk with the others of course, but she didn’t think that anyone would not want to actually do a live gig. 

She sighed because Ashlyn had her Lit book again and that’s all the homework she had left for the week. She walked down to her room, secretly hoping that Alex would answer the door again, for some odd reason. She wondered why Alex didn’t seem to want to talk to Ashlyn, herself, or any of her band mates. She knocked on Ashlyn’s door and was surprised to when Alex did in fact open the door.

“Hey Alex, is Ashlyn here?”

“Yeah” 

Alex stepped away from the door and yelled for Ashlyn. Tobin heard a muffled shout, which had to be Ashlyn before Alex walked back to the door.

“She’ll be right out, she is in the middle of a phone call.”

“Oh cool I just wait I guess.” Tobin said as she stepped into the room and sat in one of the chairs in the living area. “Hey I saw the soccer game last Saturday. Nice goal.”

Alex turned around. “Thanks.” 

Tobin noticed the small smile that Alex had as she thanked her. It was a lie of course, Tobin had never been to any of the soccer games, but she had heard that Alex scored the game winner in extra time. She still didn’t understand why she wanted to get to know Alex.

After a few more minutes Ashlyn finally came out of her bedroom and handed Tobin her book. “Sorry I was on the phone with the parents. Ready to jam tomorrow?”

“You know it.” she replied as she walked out of the room.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its been so long. This chapter is a lot of filler basically so I could refocus myself on this story.  
> thanks for being patient. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Chapter 7

September was a distant memory and October was rapidly ending. Tobin had somehow survived Mid-Terms and was fully accustomed to college life. What was even better was that the band was going full steam ahead. If she was honest with herself, that was becoming more important to her than school. And she knew that her band mates were starting to feel the same. They were starting to practice more often and for longer periods of time. They now had one of the band rooms booked for two hours at a time three nights a week.   
Her studies weren’t really being hurt yet, but she knew this was because she was taking a bunch of generals. After two months of school she realized that they were basically high level high school courses that needed just a little extra work.   
She really had one goal for the month of November. She wanted to write a song and add it to their setlist. So far they had just played a variety of covers. Songs that they all already knew, or songs that maybe one of them knew and taught the others. Their repertoire was up to almost forty songs at this point. When they weren’t practicing, they were all hanging out anyway. They had been to a few parties in the last two months and had gotten to know each other well. Tobin had also been doing things with Meghan and Morgan, who had successfully integrated themselves into the group. It wasn’t odd to see them doing their homework alongside Ali during band practices.   
Tobin leaned back in her chair at her desk and smiled to herself. She was having a blast so far.

********

Kelley was once again in Christen’s room watching a movie. Over the last two months they had spent a lot of time together. They had gone on a few more dates but still hadn’t made anything official. Kelley knew that they would eventually get to that discussion but for now she was content laying beside Christen on her bed and watching movies. She thought they were doing a pretty good job of keeping it from the other girls, but she definitely did more with Christen than with the others. She was pretty sure that Tobin thought she had a romantic interest with someone, which was why she was hardly ever in their dorm room except to sleep and shower. Tobin didn’t know how close she was to the truth.   
The movie ended and Kelley suppressed a yawn. She looked at the clock and realized it was almost three in the morning.  
“I hate to leave all of a sudden but my first class is at eight.”  
Christen put her hand over her mouth as she bit back a yawn. “You could just sleep here tonight. I promise no more movies and I don’t hog all of the blankets.”  
Kelley was slightly taken aback. They had never done a sleep over before, but she embraced the idea. “Ok, cool! I’ll set my alarm for the morning!”

********

Ashlyn looked at the clock on Ali’s bedside table. It read 2:49am. She rolled over on the bed and looked at her girlfriend. Ali’s hair was half covering her face. Ashlyn smiled to herself and once again she realized how lucky she was to have Ali. Ali’s chest rose and fell with her breathing. For some reason Ashlyn couldn’t fall asleep and if she did she only slept for about fifteen minutes at a time. Tomorrow, or today rather, was Monday. She had classes in the morning and she needed to sleep.   
She knew the reason why she couldn’t sleep. It was the band, it was always the band. Even though everyone had taken huge strides and was way more serious about it than they were in the beginning, Ashlyn wanted to take it further. She wanted to start playing shows and getting gigs. She lived for music and it was the one thing that kept her sane 100% of the time. Finally sleep overtook her and the last thing she remembered before drifting off was gently putting her arm around Ali.

*******  
Tobin grabbed her jacket and ran out of her dorm. She had woken up a little late and was going to barely get to her class on time. She ran across the green and into the music building. She slid into her seat a minute before the class was scheduled to start. Kelley looked at her and laughed as she almost fell out of her seat from momentum.   
“Hey were you at the dorm last night?” Tobin asked.  
“No I was at a friends watching movies and kinda fell asleep.” Kelley blushed as she spoke. Tobin however was looking the other way and Kelley was relieved that she didn’t notice.   
Their conversation was cut short as the professor entered the room and immediately began his lesson. Tobin immediately got bored with the lesson, because so far she had learned nothing new about the guitar. Apparently she was more skilled than the 100 level guitar course in this curriculum.   
Tobin felt a punch on her arm. She jerked awake and looked at the clock.   
“Dude you fell asleep for the majority of class,” Kelley laughed. “I’m surprised that the prof didn’t notice.”  
“Crap, did we learn anything useful today?”  
“Not really, we just reviewed the stuff that we learned on Friday. Just went over the pentatonic scale again.”  
“Nice.”  
They walked out of the music building and headed toward the student center, where breakfast awaited them. They each had a couple of hours before their next class so they always ate breakfast together on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. After a short walk they entered the building and went downstairs to get in line for food. The line moved slowly and Tobin got a little fidgety.   
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ashlyn’s roommate Alex sitting with some of the soccer girls. Tobin had tried her best to be nice to Alex and to try and get to know her. Alex however had made it clear she wasn’t interested, so Tobin gave up. She didn’t even really think about her romantically anymore.   
Finally it was their turn to pay. They used part of the schools meal plan and went inside the dining area. Tobin stocked up on eggs and bacon, which was a Monday ritual for her. She grabbed some orange juice and a bagel and went to find Kelley. She found her at one of the booths back in the corner on her phone typing furiously. She sat down on the opposite side of the table and began to eat. Kelley didn’t even notice that she had sat down.   
“Who are you texting?”  
Kelley jumped and immediately flushed. “Geez Tobin, scare me like that. Oh I’m just texting my sister.”  
Tobin knew she was probably lying about who she was texting but let it go. They ate in relative silence. After they were done eating they went their separate ways. Tobin made her way to the library to catch up on homework before her next class. 

******  
Ashlyn was finally done with classes for the day. She had a long day that was filled with quizzes in each of her classes. She made her way back to her dorm room, was thankful that Alex wasn’t around and dove onto her bed. She grabbed her computer and started watching Netflix. As scenes from Friends appeared on her screen she slowly drifted off.  
She awoke to the sound of her phone buzzing. She wiped her eyes and reached for her phone. She saw that she had a text message from Tobin about getting food in an hour or so. She looked at her phone and realized that she had slept for like 3 hours. It was just after 5pm. She fired a quick text back to Tobin saying that she would meet them at Tony’s Pizza at 6. She jumped in the shower and got ready. She texted Ali to see if she wanted to join them.   
Ali texted her back reminding her that it was her night on duty in the dorm so she couldn’t leave. Ashlyn mentally smacked herself for not remembering that Monday’s were Ali’s night she had to work.   
As it was nearing 6 she ran down to her car and drove the short distance to the pizza parlor. She was of course late, which surprised no one and she quickly spotted her friends at the booth by the pinball machine. Kelley was currently at the machine and was practically banging on the buttons.   
“Son of a!,” Kelley yelled as she missed the ball and that brought the end to her game. Ashlyn stifled a laugh and sat down next to Tobin at the booth. Once Kelley sat back down with a glare at the others, the waiter appeared to take their order. They decided to split a meat lovers pizza and a hawaiian pizza.   
Once the pizzas got there, they all dug in. They talked about how Thanksgiving break was coming up in a few weeks, and wondered if there would be any more good parties. They also talked about classes and which professors were push overs and which ones were hard asses.   
Finally after sitting there for a couple of hours they left. Ashlyn returned to her dorm room and went into her bedroom. She opened her computer and checked her campus email. It was the normal same old crap that she got periodically from clubs she had signed up for at the beginning of the semester, but hardly ever attended now. She had a couple of emails from classmates that she was working on group projects with. She responded to those and was just about to close out of her email, when one particular email caught her eye.  
The heading read “Do you have any talents you want to show off?” She opened the email and a smile appeared on her face. The university was apparently holding a talent show for students on the Monday before Thanksgiving break. It would be held in the student center and everyone was invited to participate or attend. You didn’t have to audition so all acts were automatically accepted.   
She knew that this would be the perfect time to finally play in front of an audience. It was a talent show, so it wasn't like anyone would expect them to be that great. Also they would only have to play for 10 minutes, which translated to about three songs. This was perfect and she couldn’t wait to tell the other girls. 

******  
It was finally Sunday and Tobin was excited to jam for a couple of hours. She was walking to the music building with her guitar in hand, when someone fell in step beside her.   
“You guys having practice?” Meghan asked as she fist bumped Tobin.  
“Yep, it’s been a stressful week so I need this.” Tobin laughed.   
They chatted the rest of the way to the music building. When they got there Tobin found that Christen and Kelley were already there jamming. Ashlyn arrived soon after Tobin. After they had everything set up, they ran through a couple of songs that becoming second nature to them.  
“Hey guys, hold up a second.” Ashlyn suddenly said.   
They all stopped playing and looked at Ashlyn.  
“So I don’t know if you guys got this email or have even checked your emails, but the university is having a talent show the Monday before Thanksgiving. I think that we should sign up.”  
Without hesitation Tobin said, “I’m down.”  
Kelley and Christen looked at each other before nodding their heads in agreement.   
“Cool, it’s just that it’s fun to jam and practice, but I want to play in front of a crowd. We’ve gotten pretty good over the last few months and I think that it’s time to take this next step.” Ashlyn explained.   
“Definitely, this is something that we need to do. Plus it will make it all seem like it is worth it. Not that it isn’t fun to just jam with you guys.” Christen added.   
They all agreed that it would be a fun time. They sat down to argue over what three songs they thought they should perform. All of them had a sense that this was the first step towards something that was greater than what they already had.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Tobin was currently struggling to lug her amp down the stairs of the dorm. It wasn’t that the amp was incredibly heavy it was just awkward to maneuver it around the narrow staircases of the dorms. She finally made it to the ground floor and out the door to Ashlyn’s car. Kelley’s amp and guitar was already jammed inside. She played tetris with the gear already inside to make room for her amp and guitar.   
She slammed the door shut and went back up to Ashlyn’s room.  
“Hey our stuff is in your car.”  
Ashlyn looked up from her computer and gave her a thumbs up. She shut her laptop and stood up. There was a pair of drumsticks sticking out of her back pocket.   
“Cool lets go grab a drum set and get this show on the road!”  
They grabbed Kelley and Christen and drove to the music building and grabbed Ashlyn’s favorite drum set that she had been using in practices. By the time they were finished they had Ashlyn’s car practically bursting with gear. Tobin and Kelley had to ride with Christen to the student center.   
It didn’t take them all that long to unload their gear and set it up. Since they were the only “band” that was in the talent show the dean of student affairs had asked if they would just set up before the show. Their gear would be on stage while everyone else performed.   
They were getting some strange looks from students that were coming and going, while they set up. Tobin was a little worried that their stuff was going to be there for the next four hours without them, but was assured by the dean that they would be closely monitored. This didn’t exactly reassure her, but she had reluctantly agreed to this plan. She was planning on sticking around the student center anyway for the rest of the day, except for her last class of the day.   
“Holy crap did you have to buy the heaviest amp of all time?” Kelley whined.  
“Maybe you should workout and not be such a weakling..”Christen responded.  
Kelley glared at Christen who just smiled and continued helping Ashlyn set up the drum set. When they were finally done setting up Tobin went to class, while Ashlyn said something about seeing what Ali was up to.   
“Guess we’re the only ones left.” Christen said as she looped her arm through Kelley’s. “Wanna get some coffee?”  
“That sounds like a great idea.”  
They walked downstairs to universities coffee shop. They went to their usual table in the back corner that had a great view of the campus green. The barista brought them their drinks a couple minutes later. Kelley slowly took sip from her coffee while she not so subtly stared at Christen.   
“Hey Kelley..” Christen started.  
Kelley immediately snapped to attention. Christen seemed to be trying to choose her words carefully, but it was like she wasn’t sure of what she wanted to say.   
After a couple of seconds Kelley grabbed Christens hand, which seemed to calm her down.  
“Kelley, I've been doing a lot of thinking the last few days, and well I wanted to ask you something.”  
Kelley had an idea of what was coming next and almost couldn’t wait to answer Christen.  
“Willyoubemygirlfriend?” Christen said in a rush.  
“What was that?” Kelley asked.  
Christen took a breath, “Will you be my girlfriend?”  
Kelley leaned over the table and kissed Christen. “Does that answer your question?”  
Christen smiled and sat back down. She quickly too a drink of her coffee while internally fist pumping and screaming with joy. She saw Kelley smile and she knew that she was doing the exact same thing in her mind.   
“So do we tell people yet?” Kelley asked suddenly.  
“That’s up to you. I don’t really care honestly.”  
Kelley laughed. “I think we should get through the talent show tonight before we even think about letting Ashlyn and Tobin know.”  
They finished their coffees and each pulled out textbooks and their computers to work on some work that they had been assigned in their classes. They still had a few hours before the talent show was set to start.  
“Hey guys mind if I sit down?”  
Kelley looked up and saw Tobin taking the chair next to Christen. She looked at the clock and was surprised to find out that they had been there for over an hour already. Tobin thanked the barista when she came buy with her drink.   
“Are you guys getting excited to play tonight?” Tobin asked as she put down her coffee.  
“Excited, yes. Also more nervous than I have ever been before in my life.” Kelley replied.  
“I don’t think I’ve seen Kelley sit still for more than ten seconds the whole hour we have been here,” Christen laughed. “But I’m kind of nervous also.”  
Tobin silently agreed with both of them, it was kind of nerve-wracking putting yourself out there in front of your peers like that.

********

Tobin looked out at the audience that had gathered for the talent show. She saw that the small auditorium that it was taking place in was packed with students and faculty members alike.   
“There has to be like 400 people out there!” Kelley whispered.  
“Is it packed?” Ashlyn asked.  
“Yeah I don't think anymore people could possibly fit in there.”  
“Well fire code says that max occupancy is 400 people so I’m guessing you're right about the amount of people out there.” Ashlyn laughed.   
Tobin paced back and forth behind the curtain, trying to let the jitters escape. She was counting to ten, taking deep breaths trying anything to calm down. She was glad that she wasn’t the vocalist. Christen and Kelley shared those duties. She mentally went over their short setlist for the hundredth time in the last hour. The transitions they were going to use between a couple of the songs, and the “banter” that they had decided on before the show. Tobin thought it was a little weird to have a pre-made script for the show but whatever, she didn’t have to say much. The set was a little bit more on the pop side, which she was okay with. She would rather be playing rock music but in the end she just wanted to play.   
Finally after what seemed like an eternity a stage hand tapped Tobin on the shoulder to let her know that their act was on next. Tobin thanked him and made her way to her other band members, who were all sitting on a bench back stage.  
“Yo, you guys ready for this?”  
They all looked at her and made it clear that they were ready and anxious to get on stage.  
The stand up comedian that was before them sauntered off stage after his last joke. Tobin thought he kind of sucked, and knew that the audience wasn’t too wild about him either. He however had a swagger as he walked back stage. Tobin dismissed him and grabbed her guitar and walked on stage. She plugged in and waited for the other girls to get situated.   
She scanned the crowd and saw the Meghan and Moe were basically right in front of her. They had done their sound check earlier in the day so everything should be good. She was off to the left of the stage, with Christen in the middle and Kelley to the right. Ashlyn’s drums were set up behind Christen. Meghan gave her a thumbs up and she smiled.  
She could feel the energy that was running through the crowd. They were the last act and so far the talent show had gone surprisingly well. They started out with what they knew would be a crowd pleaser, Dirty Little Secret by the All-American Rejects. It was an older song but it was fun to play. After that they went right into their next song. Tobin felt herself loosening up on stage and started to move around. She danced with Christen and just tried to be entertaining on stage.   
They were getting a great response from the crowd. People were singing along to the songs that they knew and were dancing around in the auditorium. Finally they were about to start their last song of the show.  
“We want to thank everyone who stuck around to see us, and we want to thank you all for coming out to the show tonight! This is our last song and we hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving break!” Christen said as they started up their last song. They went through the song and the energy was palpable in the air. When the song ended Tobin couldn’t hide the enormous smile on her face. The audience clapped and cheered.   
After they had spent some time chatting with people after the show, they all set about tearing their equipment down.   
“Man we need some roadies…” Ashlyn complained.  
“We’ve played one show, I think you're getting ahead of yourself there.” Christen laughed.   
Tobin laughed to herself and continued breaking down her pedal board. Suddenly Tobin felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see one of the history professors standing next to her.  
“Hi, I thought you guys were amazing tonight. I own a small coffee shop a few blocks from campus. We have bands play there on occasion, and I would love if after break you guys would do a show there. You would each get a free coffee and some free exposure,” she said.  
“That sounds great. I’ll talk to girls and we’ll let you know when we have a date that works!” Tobin responded.  
The professor gave Tobin her school email address and told her that was the best way to get a hold of her. Tobin knew that things were starting to look up for the band. She also knew that things could not have started any better than they did.


End file.
